Nawaz Sharif Re-Elected As PML-N Chief

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is under pressure to quit following the Panama Papers leak, was on Tuesday unanimously re-elected as president of his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in an intra-party election re-elected 66-year-old Sharif unopposed as no one contested his leadership.

Senior party leader Raja Zafarul Haq, an old loyalist of Sharif, was elected PML-N chairman. He was also elected unopposed. Senior party leaders Sartaj Aziz, Sir Anjam Khan, Yakoob Khan and Mir Changez Khan Marri were elected senior vice presidents.

Sharif’s election as PML-N chief comes at a time when Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, has been demanding for his resignation. Khan has threatened to launch a massive protest on November 2 to dislodge Sharif by locking down the capital Islamabad.

After his re-election, Sharif criticised Khan for ignoring his supporters in north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where PTI is in power.

“Today the people of KP are searching for their elected leader. They are searching for those who promised them a ‘Naya Pakistan’ but they are only found on containers,” he said. Khan had given the slogan of Naya Pakistan in his 2013 election speeches.

“Had you focused on your province, people would be praising you, but the situation now is such that you need months of effort to organise a gathering and to get people to attend it,” Sharif said.

Sharif and his family have dismissed the allegations of money laundering and denied any wrongdoing but the opposition is demanding an independent probe.